- Hello everyone, I'm Stephen Galloway,

and welcome to Close-Up with Hollywood Reporter Directors.

I'd like to welcome Angelina Jolie,

Guillermo del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Patty Jenkins,

Joe Wright, and Denis Villeneuve.

You're on a lifeboat.

You happen to have a DVD or Blu-Ray player.

- Oh no! - We're gonna do that?

That's not fair. - Oh no.

- [Stephen] What film are you gonna take with you to watch?

Let's start with you, Guillermo.

- Oh, why? (laughs)

- [Denis] You're the cinephile of the group.

(laughs) - Why?

Emotionally, I will answer something

completely non-prestigious.

Yeah, it's because of what it did when I was a teenager,

The Road Warrior.

(laughs)

It completely destroyed my brain.

- [Stephen] Wow, I thought you were gonna say Frankenstein.

- And, that's the problem.

The other one is I would do that.

I would take James Whale's Frankenstein.

And, it's just The Road Warrior, for me, it's the first time

I noticed how the camera worked and moved

and it was a ballet.

And, I would probably change my mind half way

through the life boat journey.

I would go, "Where is Frankenstein?"

(laughs)

- Have you ever met George Miller?

- I met and I worship George Miller, and I intend,

my sabbatical this year I'm going to do two

two week interviews.

One with Michael Mann and one with George Miller

purely about the craft to publish them in book form

just because I wanna talk with them about

what we never talk about, which is the craft.

Lenses, cameras, why, why push, why not push,

when crane, when dolly, why not?

To talk about the aspects of or painting

that nobody talks about which is vigor of the trays,

amount of paint.

We always discuss movies sort of in

a liturgical way. - If you had one question

to ask George Miller what would it be?

- To whom?

- If you had one question to ask George Miller

what would it be?

- Do you like me?

(laughs)

- [Stephen] You're so insecure.

(laughs)

- Dad? (laughs)

(laughs)

- What's your lifeboat film?

- Oh god, you're going to jump to me next.

I'm like sitting here listening to him the whole time

and I'm like, "Oh my god, so many movies

"go through my head."

'Cause there's the, I have all my--

- Only one. - One.

- I Know Where I'm Going, Powell and Pressburger.

Like, I just love that movie and also like, there's the

design of it fascinates me because it's like so romantic

but you never notice that it was really

becoming that romantic.

- It was so romantic, Powell and Pressburger, so romantic.

- And so good, and timeless. - What did it teach you

that you then brought to your work?

- The pocket of emotion of romance because I love

romantic films and I love romantic things.

- What do you mean by the pocket of emotion?

- It's the space where you get it and it's sincere

and it's real and you just keep it from hitting the ground.

It's almost the electricity of what love is, to me, is it's

when fear is mixed with desire and it's (vocalizing).

And so, there was something so incredible about

that moment, you never saw it coming and all of a sudden

you were (vocalizes) these two people are just sitting there

and you're like (gasps) those people are meant

to be together, oh my god.

And then, the storm and, you know, anyway.

- They do it in other films, too, they do that.

- Oh yeah, and they're so incredible.

- Masterful. - Such incredible filmmakers.

- Is love in real life ever what it is in films?

- I think so. - Yes.

- But, I think too often-- - Good answer.

- Well anyway, I have theories about love

but the fear and desire being equaled is the thing

and I think film allows that to happen,

but that's what it is in real life, too.

Although, we always wanna shut it down.

And, your desire is always to get, no, upper hand

and then as soon as you do it's not so much love anymore.

- I love that answer.

- So, I think it's like film allows people to feel

comfortable extending it longer.

- But, just to talk about romance, I'm not choosing

this on my boat, but Brief Encounters that David Lean movie

when they're talking and she has that moment where

she looks at him, he's describing something and she

looks at him and she says, "You looked like

"a little boy just then."

And then, he looks at her and it's like too late,

they're already in love and it's too late.

And, it's like that moment of like they both realized

what had happened and they both knew that

the other one knew it.

And then, they have to go and it's like all of sudden

you're like oh no, you and I, now you're already in love.

Anyway-- - And your boat,

what is your boat?

- [Greta] Singing in the Rain.

- Aw. - That's a nice one.

- I mean, if you're on a boat--

- Don't doubt yourself, it's

a really good one. - If you're on a boat.

- Do you find that you're trying to imitate the best

in another work or that your job is to react against it?

'Cause there is that theory that great artists

actually have another artist that they react against.

- Against. - Against.

- Mm, but why just one?

It would be hard to pick just one that

you're reacting against.

- There's a lot.

- But, I think we're always, I think it's the,

I think you're always absolutely

studying and paying homage to the people before you

and then turning it just a little bit yourself.

Like, that's the whole game, to me.

- But, it happens, sorry to interrupt the boat thing,

but has it happened to you that there are other directors

that you start against and you end up realizing

they're your favorite.

And you go, "I love this guy."

- They're all silent, that means you're the only one.

- Yeah, not so much, not so much.

There are filmmakers that I have aspired to be like.

Personally, very personally it's probably a reaction

against my father, as well, his work, who was a puppeteer.

- Freud would have something to say about that.

(laughs)

- Yeah, he was a puppeteer and he made

very beautiful marionette shows.

He founded the first purpose built puppet theater

in London in 1961.

But, one of the burden's of his career was the fact

that everyone saw puppetry as being a kind of

a children's entertainment, and he considered it to be

a fine art.

And so, a lot of it is a kind of reaction against

his perceived failure, as well.

- And react against it meaning what?

- Determination to do better.

- Oh yeah, your Anna Karenina has a little bit of that.

- No, no it's all about puppetry.

It's all about how, you know. - Oh wow.

- It all comes from puppetry, really.

- Would you chose the lifeboat film

with a puppet or without?

- Would I choose what?

- Your lifeboat film with a puppet

or without. - Without, definitely.

- It would be what?

- It would be probably Wings of Desire by

Wim Wenders. - Wow, yeah.

- Which I love because of its humanity.

And, I think on a lifeboat I might need

to be reminded of my love of humanity.

So, I'd take that one.

Maybe even also Brief Encounter, as well.